For now, no CNG vehicles planned for Philadelphia

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Even though Philadelphia has its own natural gas utility, the city’s vehicle fleet does not include trucks or cars that run on compressed natural gas. City Council members are wondering why.

Philadelphia is poised to spend millions of dollars for new trash trucks as part of it’s capital budget, but Fleet Manager Chris Cocci says they won’t be buying any compressed natural gas powered vehicles.

“The problem has always been infrastructure, we don’t have the infrastructure to support compressed natural gas,” he said.  “There’s no fuel station and our buildings need to be upgraded to allow for repairs inside the building there’s building codes which directly impact what we would be able to do as far as repairs.”

Philadelphia Gas Works does have CNG vehicles and has been actively making the pitch to private fleet owners to convert.

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Rebecca Rhynhart, chief administrative officer, says city government is looking into CNG, since those trucks pollute less than diesel ones.

“The possibility of how we could fund some type of expansion into CNG, what grant opportunities are out there and how we could go that route,” she said.

The city is also exploring adding electric cars to the fleet.

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